Videos

The Story of Pillman

"Frank" is a man who has coped with severe chronic pain for about 20 years. Under the care of his primary care physician, he was gradually increased on narcotic pain mediations to very high levels. He never took medication that wasn’t prescribed, but he often pushed his doctor for more because he was encountering what he called the “withdrawals.” When his doctor left his practice which was several miles from Worcester, he came to our practice at the Hahnemann Family Health Center in Worcester. At our practice he was offered a greatly reduced level of medication and behavioral health support. He reports that it was in the chronic pain group run by Dr. Runyan (the interviewer in the video) that he learned strategies he used to stop taking narcotic medication all together. His sculpture, Pillman, made from his medication containers, is a powerful metaphor for the power of the medication and for the role he feels it played in his life.